Some experts believe that it is better for children to begin learning a foreign language at primary school rather than secondary school.
Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?
It is sometimes argued that children should start learning a second language since primary school instead of secondary school. While there are convincing points both for and against of this opinion, I personally believe that advantages of this statement are superior to its disadvantages.
On the one hand, it is understandable that learning another language can be a burden for younger children. For example, as there are more important subjects such as math, science or mother tongue, an extra language module can let children back from learning these basic and essential subjects. This, in turn, may demotivate young pupils to study fully focused due to loads of materials.
On the other hand, however, there are some benefits of learning a foreign language at primary school. Firstly, teaching any given subject as well as a language in younger ages is relatively easy, as kids can catch up everything they taught instantly and remember it for a long period of time or even sometimes this knowledge can stay with them over the whole lifetime. Secondly, by teaching a second language to children, we can extract their linguistic abilities and improve them further. For instance, there might be talented students in terms of linguistic skills, and they can be trained in this field more deeply. Finally, if children learn any other language, it can help them to grow up more intellectually. For example, they can watch some TV programs or movies in foreign languages.
To sum up, I would argue that the benefits of learning a foreign language beginning from junior school years do outweigh its drawbacks.